Guide to smart heating: Why upgrading your thermostat is a good idea

Did you know that the heating and cooling of buildings accounts for over 33 per cent of the world’s energy usage? That’s a larger share than that of the entire global transportation industry. There are two primary reasons why heating uses so much energy: First, many people use old and outdated heating systems that are not energy efficient. Second, the way heating is used can be very careless in that hundreds of millions of pounds are wasted every year in the heating and cooling of empty homes.

Over the last couple of years, smart thermostats have become much more advanced and can make a real difference to your heating efficiency and comfort. They make controlling indoor heating easier and more intelligent over traditional systems. Therefore helping you save significant energy and money, without sacrificing on comfort, where it might have otherwise been wasted.

Smart heating has tangible benefits and is here to stay, so let us guide you through it and why upgrading your thermostat to a smart one is a good idea.

The Internet of Things

The internet is becoming an ever more important part of making our everyday lives that little bit easier. Think of cars, your TV, payments or even washing machines, we’re moving from the internet of people to also incorporating the internet of things.

This also applies to home heating systems as old as they may be. Making your heating smart will reduce your energy wastage and costs through intelligent control and automation. The easiest and most effective solution for this is to use a smart thermostat, a small device that breaks down your heating system’s complexity, connects it to the internet and unlocks a huge potential of new features and benefits that you probably never knew was possible.

Tado

Digital comfort

There are several smart thermostats on the market and the features and benefits vary between devices. tado° works as a digital assistant that helps you change your heating behaviour without any effort from your side. All you need is the tado° Smart Thermostat, the accompanying app and an internet connection.

tado°’s geofencing app acts as your personal assistant, automatically turning down the heating when the last person leaves your home, while it begins to pre-heat again as soon as the first person is on their way back. As it also works as a remote control you can always adjust your heating manually via the tado° app on your mobile, tablet or computer.

Harnessing the environment

Smart heating is much more than just remote access. On a warm day with the sun shining through your windows, tado° will automatically turn down the heating accordingly, letting the sun and outside weather do the work for you. Why pay for heating when it’s sometimes outside your door for free.

Then there are your building’s unique characteristics that are taken into account. All homes are different and come in various shapes and sizes, with different levels of insulation, types of windows and floor heights. tado° gets to know your home and learns how to optimise your heating in the most efficient way. Combined with the automated geolocation, independent studies have found that using the tado° Smart Thermostat brings savings of up to 31 per cent a year.

Tado

Easier control

In addition to the obvious benefit of remote access to your boiler from wherever you are, a good smart thermostat will give you unprecedented control over your heating system and hot water through manual, scheduled or automated settings.

In the past, scheduling your heating has meant flicking a switch in a cupboard or pressing several buttons on the boiler and hoping you'd wake up with toasty feet or come home to a warm house. Smart heating takes the guesswork out of scheduling, while also making it easier and offering more options, which in turn develops better and more efficient heating behaviour.

Future proof your home

Smart heating systems aren't just about what you can do right now, they are also about future proofing your home because they are only going to get more intelligent through free software updates. Continuous evolution and better integration between smart devices will give you complete control and automation of your heating and home. Just keep an eye on IFTTT, Apple’s HomeKit and other platforms that allow you to use tado°°’s features with other smart appliances and apps.

Headquartered in Munich, tado°, the European market leader in intelligent home climate control solutions, was founded in 2011. With its Smart Thermostat and Smart AC Control, tado° revolutionises the way energy is consumed at home. Through the use of a geo-aware app, tado° automatically adjusts the temperature based on the residents’ locations, enabling households to save up to 31% on energy costs while reaching a higher level of comfort.